Principles for Effective Learning

No mistakes. Always be sure and in control. Follow the principle of 100% correct practice: to make a mistake is to learn incorrect things, and to confuse that which you already know.

Slower is faster. Speed comes from certainty. The more you type things correctly, no matter how slow it has to be, the more certain you will be, and the faster you will become a proficient typist. Increase speed only when you feel sure enough to do so.

Don't look at the keyboard! If you don't know where a key is, look at the keyboard to find it, then look away and type the key. Do not guess; always be sure.

Type to a steady rhythm. Generally, the time between keystrokes should be the same, giving you a sense of flow and the ability to scan ahead at a constant speed.

Relax. No unnecessary or dysfunctional tension. Enjoy the rhythm of your own typing!

Hit the keys squarely in the center. If you find you aren't consistently doing so, SLOW DOWN!!! It should feel good to type!

Instructions for Use

Press the "Click here to start" button, then type what you see on the screen. If you type correctly, the letter will turn to grey. If you err, it won't, and you will hear an error sound.

To do the same again (which you should do if you make ANY mistakes), press the "Go again!" button that appears when you finish.

Remember, shoot for no errors!! That is the most important thing right now. Speed means nothing; certainty and correctness are what's important.

For practical purposes, you can consider yourself having mastered an exercise only if you are able to type three reloaded screens of exercises in a row in under 60 seconds each, with no errors, confidently.

Technical Help

If you are accessing this course on the desktop or a laptop, Google Chrome (currently the most popular browser in the world) is the recommended browser for this site, and switching to it will likely solve any issues you may be experiencing. It is a free download, easy to install, and available for all platforms.

Javascript is required for the typing functionality, so please ensure it is turned on in your browser preferences.

Some third-party extensions for web browsers, such as ad blockers, might interefere with the typing functionality. If you are using such an extension, turn it off temporarily and see if that is the cause. If so, it should be possible to whitelist this site so that the extension is turned off for this site only.

This course is not designed to be used with a soft keyboard on a tablet, although it has been successfully tested to work with iOS devices (iPad and iPhone). If you are on Android or a Windows Mobile device it is hit or miss, however it should work absolutely fine with an external keyboard. It is highly recommended to learn touch typing on a physical keyboard for the tactile feedback, and bluetooth keyboards can be obtained very inexpensively these days (i.e. as little as $10). This is a VERY worthwhile investment to learn touch typing, a skill which will last you a lifetime.

If you're still having problems, you can still access the old, Flash-based version of the course here.

Lesson 1: Home Row, Left Hand

Welcome to Lesson 1! First, a little orientation: at the top of every lesson you'll see a diagram of the keyboard that highlights in yellow the keys you will be working on. In subsequent keyboarding lessons the keys you have already learned but are not the focus of the lesson will be coloured green. It is vital that you will have mastered those keys before moving onto a new lesson. Mastery, for purposes of this course means that you can confidently and consistently type a lesson exercise in under 60 seconds with NO errors.

With that out of the way, here we go!

The home row is a key concept in typing (sorry for the pun!). It is that middle horizontal row of the keyboard that starts with A and goes all the way across. The idea behind the home row is that each finger remains in light contact with a particular key there when it is not typing in order to keep "grounded", providing a reference point for every other key. Here are the "home keys" for each of your 8 fingers:

Finger

Key

Left hand pinky

A

Left hand ring

S

Left hand middle

D

Left hand index

F

Right hand index

J

Right hand middle

K

Right hand ring

L

Right hand pinky

;

If you have a relatively recent keyboard, it more than likey has some sort of bump you can feel on the F and J keys, where your index fingers go. This is of course to help you quickly find the home row when you're not looking at the keyboard.

Place your fingers gently on their respective keys now, light enough so that you are not actually pressing them! This is where your fingers "hang out" when they're not typing, and where they "spring" back to just after they have finished typing another key somewhere else. It is very important for your fingers to be able to go to these keys at any time, at a split second's notice. Practice taking your hands away and placing them on these keys several times, until you can do it confidently, and without looking.

The space bar is pressed with either thumb. Most people probably use only one thumb, the one on their dominant hand. The thumbs basically float comfortably in the air when not in use.

Below is your first interactive exercise based on the four left-hand home keys: ASDF. These are typed with the left-hand pinky, ring finger, middle finger and index finger respectively. Before typing even a single letter, please keep ALL of the Principles for Effective Learning in mind. Here are the instructions; all the exercises in all the lessons work this way, so read carefully:

Press the "Click here to start" button, then type what you see on the screen. If you type correctly, the letter will turn to grey. If you err, it won't, and you will hear an error sound.

To do the same again (which you should do if you make ANY mistakes), press the "Go again!" button that appears when you finish.

Remember, shoot for no errors!! That is the most important thing right now. Speed means nothing; certainty and correctness are what's important.

For practical purposes, you can consider yourself having mastered an exercise only if you are able to type three reloaded screens of exercises in a row in under 60 seconds each, with no errors, confidently.

Take a moment to tap your left hand fingers on your desk/table/thigh while saying the letters they will be typing (a, s, d, f), as in the above diagram. Do it forwards & backwards, and inside-out!

Sorry for the nonsense words to come, but there's only so much you can do with only 4 letters and the space bar! Make sure you are going slow enough to prevent mistakes. Be sure of every key; do not guess. And of course, don't look at the keyboard!